HORSESHOE COMPENDIUM

The ever-increasing science of horseshoe pitching, and the constant demand for more and more ringers have eliminated all these afore-mentioned methods of throwing an open shoe from the consideration of first class players. At the present time there are but two turns which meet the requirements of modern horseshoe players. These two turns are the one and one-quarter and the one and three-quarter turns. Which of these two turns is the best is a moot question among the experts. You will find the leading players fairly well divided in their opinions regarding the possibilities of these two turns, but all will agree that these turns are far superior to any other turns.
Our choice of turns must therefore be limited to these two. Our advice to the student is this: If you are now a pitcher and have been using the one and one-quarter turn, stick to it! But if you are just starting in, or have been using some other turn, make up your mind to pitch the one and three-quarter turn.
It is not difficult to switch from one of these turns to the other, because your swing, step and delivery will be the same, while the grip you are going to learn here is applicable to either turn.

THE GRIP

There will be no need to go into detail concerning the various ways the leading experts take hold of their shoes to throw them. Each of these experts has developed a grip peculiar to himself that will be hard to imitate, and a beginner will do very well to avoid trying to imitate an expert, because the man he tries to copy has gone through an evolution of grips to arrive at his present one, and the beginner cannot successfully copy him without first experiencing the same evolution.
The beginner must make his start with a grip which he knows is fundamentally sound, and can afterward shift his hold slightly to conform with the ideas he acquires after considerable practice. Practically all of the leading experts take hold of the shoe in the same basic manner, but each of them has added a quirk here and there to differ slightly from others. It is a question whether this little change does him any better, or whether it is just the thought that he has invented a grip peculiar unto himself that enables him to do better. However that may be, the fact remains that the beginner must start out on the right track, and for the beginner we advocate this grip for him to use.
We have taken the privilege of naming this grip the "gun handle grip." As the name implies, the hand and fingers are bent into much the same shape as they would be, were you to grasp